Don't forget to remove the awning poles.

[ram1each]

I went on a quick 2 night trip to a local county park with my 8 year old son. Wife had to work. We had a great time fishing, kayaking and just enjoying each other. Then came the time to break camp. I removed the vertical support poles for the awning and lowered the awning along the side of the camper. My intention was to lower the roof a little to be able to roll the awning and reach the bag. As I lowered the roof I heard a RIP! I looked at my son standing there and asked what that noise was? I forgot to remove the horizontal poles and as they reached the ground one of them went up almost through the awning. It caused a minor rip within the awning bag so I should not have any leaking problems. It was just a dumb move on my part and thought I would share the experience.

[Steve in a Starcraft]

Ouch!

[Oz and Us]

I removed the vertical support poles for the awning and lowered the awning along the side of the camper.

It's been a few years since we sold our Fleetwood Santa Fe but my recollection is that the awning's vertical support poles weren't detachable but rather nested inside the front awning rail so I'm wondering what could be different about your's other than the fact you have 3 vertical support poles while mine had 2.  I could easily set up / pack away my awning solo, the first step being to add Velcro to the awning and bag so the awning wouldn't suddenly unravel when the bag was unzipped ...



Unzip the bag, unroll the awning and allow the vertical support poles to drop out of their nested position within the front rail, grab the one ridge pole that I had stored within the rolled up awning and set it in position.  At this point the awning was self supporting and would simply elevate with the roof ... once that was done I could go around and add the remaining ridge poles.  Packing the awning away was simply the reverse.

[yooperguy]

I think he had his vertical poles stowed and the awning was hanging with the horizontal poles (now in the vertical position) still extended.  At least that's the way I read it.

[ram1each]

Yooperguy, that is correct. The horizontal poles became vertical when I lowered the awning along the side of the camper.

[Oz and Us]

Yooperguy, that is correct. The horizontal poles became vertical when I lowered the awning along the side of the camper.

The only way that can happen is a) if you leave them all in place, which isn't necessary at all and b) you allowed the vertical support poles to collapse completely into the front awning rail ... otherwise there's no reason that you can't lower the roof with just one ridge pole in place and have it remain relatively horizontal until you're ready to remove it entirely.